Here you can see the madder root, which has yet to break down, under the indigo water's surface the water has a blue foam on the top but has not turned a dark blue yet. This vat requires more fermentation time before it will become usable.

The vat will start out dark blue color you will need to beat air into the vat to get it to reduce at this time. Beating the indigo fermentation vat seems to defy all logic when it comes to indigo dyeing - where you are constantly being told to NOT introduce Oxygen into the vat, this is the one time you get to stir the dickens out of your indigo vat and it results in great colors!

Here the color is beginning to turn a dark pea green color, it needs further reduction so keep stirring until it turns yellow.

Dissolve ground indigo in warm tap water, enough to cover and make a rough paste.

Note: The ground Indigo will float at the top of the vat if just thrown into the water make your paste first. The indigo at this point is not completely dissolved, once introduced to the vat; it will dissolve after a few days in the vat.

Add madder root, bran, and soda ash to the warm water stir well then add indigo paste to the vat. Cover, but not tightly, and apply heat source.

Stir the pot once, or twice, a day during the reduction period with one gentle stir. If you stir the vat too often this will introduce Oxygen into the vat.

Depending on where you live, i.e., temperature and humidity levels, the vat can take anywhere from 5 – 10 days to become viable. By viable I mean ready to dye fibers.

Fermentation vats need to be kept warm while reducing. I keep my vat, a stainless steel pot that is covered with a lid, in my studio oven (gas) where the pilot light is continuously on, about 98 degrees F.

The vat needs to be kept at body temperature during the reduction phase.

If you do not have a dedicated oven, I recommend using either a heating pad, with a temperature control knob, or a high quality fish tank heater with digital temperature controls.

Chopped Madder Root

Wheat Bran

Madder Root added to warm water in bucket. Initially it floats at the top of the water’s surface.

The Bran now added to the vat. The bran floats on top of the madder root until they have been sufficiently stirred together, eventually sinking to the bottom of the vat.

Soda Ash has now been added to the vat. The vat has a foamy look from the bubbling action of the soda ash. The mixture has been blended, to ensure that the soda ash does not solidify on the bottom of the bucket.

WARNING: Always add your acids and bases to water, never the other way around! Doing so can result in harmful reactions that can cause injury.

Natural Indigo added to the vat. The Madder and Bran are still floating at or near the waters surface. The indigo while made into a paste, does not want to dissolve in the water as you can see from the globs hanging on the sides of the bucket.

Once the Lye is added to the “cold” water the water will become very hot from the chemical reaction! This reaction will cause your utensils and vat container to become hot. Have hot pads or insulated gloves for handling hot equipment.

Make sure that your container can withstand high temperatures.

Read safety instructions that came with your Lye (Sodium hydroxide).

Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) is dangerous! Extreme caution must be used when handling lye (Sodium hydroxide). Lye (Sodium hydroxide) will cause serious burns to the skin, eyes and mucous membranes.

A respirator is required when handling lye(Sodium hydroxide) products as inhalation of the fumes can cause serious burns to the nose and mouth (mucous membranes)

Wash your hands thoroughly for five minutes, and upper arms, after working with lye (Sodium hydroxide). You want to make sure that your hands are completely free of chemical before touching any other parts of your body to prevent burns.

Do NOT use with aluminum or cheap stainless steel containers or utensils. Do NOT put lye into an a cast iron pot!

FIRST AID: wash burned area with cool water for 15-20 minutes. Call or seek emergency help for burns. Seek medical attention immediately.

If swallowed seek medical attention immediately. Do NOT induce vomiting!!!

Keep Lye (Sodium hydroxide) away from children and small pets.

IF a spill should occur sweep of lye and dispose of down the sink drain with copious amounts of cold water.

This ALSO applies to Thiox, Indigo extract, Soda Ash or any mordant, assist, or chemical when you are working in the studio.

Thiox will burn your skin wash immediately with water.

Work in a well ventilated area, I prefer to work out of doors with the wind blowing away from me.

Wear a respirator when working with Natural Dye Extracts, Mordants, and Dye Assists

DO NOT PUT WATER INTO YOUR THIOX POWDER AS THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS CREATING A TOXIC CLOUD OF GAS!!!

Rather using a studio dedicated teaspoon place your thiox into the indigo vat.

Respirator – you only get one set of lungs! Wear a respirator when handling dye powders, mordants, and dye assists~!Gloves – wear heavy duty kitchen or dyeing gloves when handling the indigo ingredients (See safety Instructions Below)Stock Pot 18 quarts or bigger, can be Stainless Steel or Enamel the indigo vat will react with aluminum so I don’t recommend using aluminum pots for creating the vat.Scale for weighing dyes and chemicals – again studio dedicated!Measuring spoons, measuring cups, wisk for stirringJar – wide mouth pint jar for making indigo pasteSpoon, studio dedicated, for stirring the vatTongs for retrieving your fabrics, fibers, etc.Lingerie bag for small items you wish to find in the vat again the bag makes them easier to retrieveWater for your vat, rinsing, and for oxidizingVinegar – helps to restore the pH balance of wool and silk fibers/fabricspH papers/strips for testing the pH of your vat.Heat sourceClothesline for hanging fabrics onto to help fabric oxidize faster.

Natural Indigo Chemical Reduction Mini-Vat Instructions:

1.READ Safety Instructions before Beginning the Indigo Vat!2. Fill your vat container with water you don’t need to heat the vat at this point. ALLOW TO SIT OVERNIGHT, doing this allows the oxygen to dissipate from the vat.

3. Place 1 ounce Natural Indigo powder (if you are working with hard chunk indigo it will have to be ground down first) into a suitable container.

4. Add just enough hot water until you get a paste – preferably lump free (I use a dedicated wide mouth pint jar for this solution.

5. Add soda ash or lye to the vat water - NEVER add water to your soda ash or lye ALWAYS add the soda ash or lye to the water!!!

6. Slowly add the indigo paste to the vat solution

7. Stir to dissolve NOTE this may take quite a bit of stirring, heating the vat at this point also helps with dissolving the paste faster.

8. Next add thiox to the vat solution stir very little so as to avoid adding Oxygen to the vat.

9. DO NOT BOIL YOUR VAT as this will cause bubble formation and will introduce Oxygen into the vat.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I started by placing an ounce of dye materials into a clean quart jar (old spagetti sauce jars)

Filled the jars with vodka or everclear until the dye materials are covered, placed lid on jar and allowed to sit overnight.

Placed alum mordanted silk fat quarters into each jar, filled with distilled water, placed lid back onto jar and placed the jars in a sunny location. Here you can see the dye liquid wick up the fabric.

Leave in sun for up to three weeks, check to make sure that mold isn't growing on your fabrics. 2004

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

When working with any mordant or dye powder always wear a respirator with fresh filters.

NOTE: Any dyeing equipment used in natural dyeing, should never ever be used or reused for the preparation, storage or cooking of food or beverages.

What Scouring Does:

Scouring fabric is easy and will ensure excellent dye uptake every time.

Scouring is a two step process, both steps must be followed if you wish to acquire the greatest depth of color.

Scouring fabric removes the grease, dust, dirt and grime that fabrics encountered during the manufacturing process and transit.

How to Scour Your Fabric:

Simply wash your fabric, this includes PFD fabric, in the washing machine in hot water with Soda Ash. Do not add any fabric softeners to the wash. If you must dry your fabric do so without any fabric softener sheetsNOTE: Fabric softeners interfere with both natural and synthetic dye uptake.Using an large enamel or stainless steel pot, fill the pot at least half full and place one ounce of soda ash into the pot per pound of cotton or linen fabric/fiber.Place fabric into water, swish it around using a stainless steel spoon.

Bring water to a boil!!!

Adjust heat to a low boil/hard simmer and allow to boil for two hours. stir the fabric every 15 minutes or so t make sure that the fabric is being adequately scoured

After two hours remove from heat source, allow fabric to cool down until the fabric is at room temperature.

Remove the fabric from the water and rinse.

NOTE: If the water is brown or grey replace the water & soda ash mixture with fresh water and soda ash and re-scour the fabric, it is not clean yet. repeat this process until the fabric rinses clean and the scour water is only mildly dirty.

Once again it is time to point out the importance of proper fabric preparation when dyeing with natural dyes. I don't say this to be rude but rather to save you much time, effort, and disappointment when dyeing cotton with natural dyes.

Q. Do I have to scour my PFD, Prepared for Dyeing, Fabrics?

A. YES you must scour PFD fabric before mordnating and dyeing with natural dyes, I go as far as even washing BEFORE I scour my fabric to ensure that the dressing oils, all fabrics receive these it's to keep the dust down when the fabric is rolled onto bolts, tubes, etc.. I have scouring instructions on my website and video on youtube. The scouring process is so very important with cellulosic fibers as it helps to force the fibers open before the mordanting and dyeing steps. Scouring ensures that your fabric will hold maximum natural dye molecules and helps to achieve truer colors.

Q. is your water hard or treated? Water quality is very important regarding the final dye color out come. Hard water tends to supress most dye molecules (exception is weld it becomes more intense).

Q. Which plants do you plan to dye with? Some plants do not yield permanent color so it is important to know this before you start a project, as depending on your plans for the fabric you may not be able to over dye at a later date if your colors fade.

NOTE: Also cotton fabrics don't take certain natural dye colors no matter what you do to the fabric but silk and wool fabrics will suck the color up like no tomorrow.

Once again it is time to point out the importance of proper fabric preparation when dyeing with natural dyes. I don't say this to be rude but rather to save you much time and effort when dyeing cotton with natural dyes.

Q. Do I have to scour my PFD, Prepared for Dyeing, Fabrics?

A. YES you must scour PFD fabric before mordnating and dyeing with natural dyes, I go as far as even washing BEFORE I scour my fabric to ensure that the dressing oils, all fabrics receive these it's to keep the dust down when the fabric is rolled onto bolts, tubes, etc.. I have scouring instructions on my website and video on youtube. The scouring process is so very important with cellulosic fibers as it helps to force the fibers open before the mordanting and dyeing steps. Scouring ensures that your fabric will hold maximum natural dye molecules and helps to achieve truer colors.

Q. is your water hard or treated? Water quality is very important regarding the final dye color out come. Hard water tends to supress most dye molecules (exception is weld it becomes more intense).

Q. Which plants do you plan to dye with? Some plants do not yield permanent color so it is important to know this before you start a project, as depending on your plans for the fabric you may not be able to over dye at a later date if your colors fade.

NOTE: Also cotton fabrics don't take certain natural dye colors no matter what you do to the fabric but silk and wool fabrics will suck the color up like no tomorrow.

About Me

A Mixed Media Fiber Artist, I have been dyeing with natural dyes using local and sustainable materials since 1993. I teach surface design using natural dyes, rust dyeing, compost dyeing and other surface design techniques.